Category Archives: Digital Forensics

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The situation arose the other day where I wanted to view the metadata from a group of images as well as see the geographic location of where those images were taken, if they contained GPS information. I looked and found some very good tools that either displayed the metadata of image files, such as NirSoft’s ExifDataView, but didn’t map the location. I also found some good scripts that would take the GPS coordinates contained in the images and map them in Google Maps. Since I didn’t immediately find a tool that did both extract the metadata and map the location, I decided to write my own. Continue reading →

Part 1 of this series illustrated my search for the best application to keep forensic case notes and research. Part 2 covered the organization of the notebook and the various section groups, sections, and pages. In this third and final installment I will discuss how Microsoft OneNote integrates with other applications to both store relevant information and be able to retrieve that information later for generating final reports, emails, etc. Continue reading →

In Part 1 of this series, I discussed my search for a tool to keep my forensic notes and research organized while providing readability and searchability. I decided on Microsoft OneNote as the ideal solution to fit my needs. In this post, I will show how I have decided to organize my OneNote notebook and the sections that go into it. Continue reading →

Good notes, documentation, and reports are all keys to successful work as a forensic
analyst. In addition, it is also important to be able to quickly locate relevant details in those bodies of work. All three can be accomplished with pen and paper, a word processing application, a digital notes application, an application specifically for case notes, or any combination of the above.

Not being able to read my own handwriting pretty much ruled out pen and paper for me, hence my search for a better tool for my forensic note taking and documentation needs. Continue reading →

While attending Citrix Synergy 2017 last week the BlueScreenView tool from NirSoft was mentioned as a tool for troubleshooting desktops in a Citrix VDI environment. Although this tool can be helpful for troubleshooting BSOD in both physical and virtual computers it also struck me as a good tool for incident response and digital forensics.

BlueScreenView is a free tool provided by NirSoft and is used to view the contents of the dump file generated when a BSOD occurs. Continue reading →

I am currently taking the Windows Prefetch class in the Surviving Digital Forensics training series presented by Sumuri.

The class has recently been updated to include the format change of the prefetch files in Windows 10. In addition this weeks episode of the Surviving Digital Forensics podcast talks about the format change of the prefetch files but also talks about NirSoft WinPrefetchView version 1.35 application that can be utilized to decode and analyze Windows 10 prefetch files.

Previous posts outlined some of the benefits of using VMWare Workstation or other virtualization technology to host not only forensic analysis workstations as well as other workstations for test and validation. One of the advantages of utilizing VMWare Workstation is the ability for the host workstation to share a folder with guest workstations in read only mode.

This feature is especially appealing as a way to directly access and analyze the VMDK files of virtual test and validation workstations by a virtual forensic analysis workstation.

To verify that the VMDK file was not modified while utilizing the Read Only option for shared folders in VMWare Workstation I calculated the hash value of the VMDK file via multiple access methods. The results are shown below. Continue reading →

In the previous posts we have looked at the ability to run test and validation workstations as well as a forensic examination workstations within VMWare Workstation. The ability to map a drive from within the virtual forensic examination system to directly access the VMDK files of the test workstations was also discussed previously. Continue reading →